How hard is creating an app to replace Uber and Lyft?
With Uber and Lyft threatening to shut down over California's ruling to classify drivers as employees, how hard would it be to replace the services? Could drivers and supporters create an alternative app to allow them to serve riders without going through the services? Does California have enough entrepreneurs and programmers whom the shutdown would inconvenience enough to make solving it worth their while?
Having worked for a thriving competitor of those brands, I can tell you that the app was not the major factor of success for the company. Our infra, at the time, was retarded, the code quality was mediocre, and we witnessed major downtimes, fun times. You have to come at the right time (for vc money), organize operations efficiently (recruit drivers + passengers) and make some lobbying to not be banned outright, while managing angriness from drivers, and unhappy clients. This is the hard part. The tech is basic !
You would need to get drivers, and you would have to follow the law. That would be the hard part.
I mean, the real question would be - what would be the differences you'd want to see between unnamed new app and the existing ones?
That would dictate how hard it is. Anyone can make an app, Market penetration/usage is where the real questions await.
Put another way, what compelling reason could be offered that a.) entices drivers b.) entices endusers c.) technically feasible d.) sustainable
There are a bunch of them, six or more, where I live. YCombinator even backed one of them recently[0], but they were already +200 employees and dominated the market.
I always thought they would sell to Uber. Recently, Careem entered the Algerian market after Uber bought Careem. I always thought the company would sell to Uber/Careem, but they haven't yet. They issued a statement April 1st that they sold to Uber/Careem if I recall correctly.
[0]: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/13642
I worked for a British taxi company that was developing that kind of app, I developed it. One problem for the company was that their drivers worked for Uber at the same time as them. They were freelancers, not employed by either firm. They had two phones one for receiving jobs from the taxi firm and the Uber one. We had to trust that they weren't doing both at the same time. I think they used Uber to give them work during periods when it was quiet for my firm.
Does this double working happen in the USA?
> "Does California have enough entrepreneurs and programmers whom the shutdown would inconvenience enough to make solving it worth their while?"
Reminds me of a [1] quote from a professor:
"if it takes 6 men 7 days to build a wall. How long will it take 10,000 men to build the same wall? .... the answer is less than 1 second"
[1] https://youtu.be/2qLuerYx2IA
Probably not too difficult to make the app itself. To build the network of drivers to make a consistent enough service to attract users(and then more drivers to expand further) is the tricky part. + insurance and regulation, when they started they didn’t have to deal with it as much until they did, and by then they had resources to do so.
Yes, good question.
We need anonymous, decentralized cryptocoin-like peer-to-peer service system with crowdsourced rating for every vertical that would allow such system to evolve and prosper outside of this political nonsense.
The biggest challenge is obeying the law and might not be the app.
Might be another way to circumvent this would be to masquerade as a delivery service with a free lift.
Not sure if the law covers that part as well.
I wonder if the going to a cooperative model is the way to go. It might resemble the taxi companies in some ways